Spring 1998 Issue of the AAPG Student Outlook

SW Section Student Reception a Success The AAPG Southwest Section Convention was March 29-31, 1998. The AAPG sponsored, Student Reception was organized for students and industry to come together for pizza, cookies and pop and get the opportunity to visit. The industry representatives were: Bruno Hanson (Independent), AAPG President 1986-1987 Jim Gibbs (Five States Energy Co.), AAPG President 1990-1991 Susan Kiser (Mesa Co. Health Dept.), DEG President 1997-1998 Tom Tenney (Santa Fe Energy Res.) Bob Gunn (Gunn Oil Co.), AAPG President 1978-1979 We had 5 new students apply for membership, and they all happen to be from Mid-Western University Geology Department, Wichita Falls, TX. Other schools represented were: Southern Methodist University, University of Texas at San Antonio, and Texas Tech.   Yeah, NEW STUDENTS!! Above: Neil Hurley, Editor and Colorado School of Mines AAPG Student Chapter Faculty Advisor, Carter Keaims, President, Texas Tech AAPG Student Chapter, Don O'Nesky, AAPG Foundation Executive Director, and James Gibbs, AAPG Past President and President of Fives States Energy Co.

Benefits For The Active Student Chapters Austin Weeks Undergraduate Grant Program- A $1 million gift from Austin Weeks, a longtime supporter of the AAPG Foundation, has created a fund that will provide monies to undergraduate students based on both academic efforts and need, identified through AAPG Student Chapters. Final details of how the grant money will be distributed and how the recipients will be selected will be finalized during the AAPG Student Chapter Committee meeting during the 1998 AAPG Annual Convention. $500 Book Draw - The AAPG Executive Committee approved an annual draw from the AAPG Bookstore, for AAPG products, up to $500 for each AAPG Student Chapter for the 1998-1999 year. This is not an automatic benefit and the Student Chapter Committee must approve requests. (Forms will be provided at a later date.) Internship/Mentorship Program Bridging Academia with Industry This newly adopted AAPG program was created to provide an opportunity for geoscience students and recent graduates to gain work experience in the oil & gas industry. The backbone of the program is the Internship/Mentorship Conferences held twice a year: Houston, in the Fall, Denver in the Spring. The Conferences revolve around a student poster session/Open House. This poster session is designed to showcase students' work to potential employers, and provide an opportunity for networking. Representatives from the oil & gas industry, professors, and students attend. This has proven to be an effective way to link students with industry in order to discuss future internships and employment opportunities. Students are not required to submit a poster to attend. In February 1998, S. Morrice & Associates held an Internship/Mentorship Program conference at their offices in Denver and the outcome was wonderful! Of the hundred + attendance (students and industry) approximately 25 of the students were placed in summer internships. The next Internship/Mentorship Conference will be held in Houston Texas, in September 1998. S. Morrice & Associates are the head of this program. If you have any questions or comments, please contact: Marybeth Davies or call: (303) 573-3909 ext. 223.

Attention Presidents Please read section IX of the Student Chapter Bylaws carefully. It is vital to the eligibility of your chapter to receive benefits-AAPG must receive your chapter reports. SECTION IX: REPORTS ARTICLE 1 The student chapter shall file two reports with AAPG Headquarters. The first report, to be filed in December, shall list the executive committee, committee heads and list of the members in the chapter as of December 1. The second report, due at the end of the school year, will summarize the chapter's activities for the year, provide a summary of the chapter's budget, and list the officers elected for the following year. ARTICLE 2 Failure to provide the first report to Headquarters by the end of December will result in forfeiture of the chapter's membership rebate (Section III, Article 5). ARTICLE 3 Failure to provide the final report to Headquarters by the end of the school year will result in the chapter being placed on probation. Any chapter placed on probation which fails to file either of the two reports is subject to having the AAPG affiliation and attendant benefits revoked.

Pipeline Connections· AAPG Home Page:http://www.aapg.org AGI: http://www.agiweb.org AIPG: http://www.aipg.com GRI: http://www.lgc.com Oil and Gas Journal: http://www.ogjonline.com (Subscription Service Fee) SEPM: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/sepm/sepm.html Schlumberger: http://www.connect.slb.com Halliburton: http://www.halliburton.com Chevron: http://www.chevron.com Rice University-AAPG Chapter: http://zephyr.rice.edu/department/students/lemaux/AAPG/aapg.html If you have an address you would like to submit for the next issue of the Student Outlook, please send it to Student Affairs Coordinator   Note from the Chairman For those of you attending the Salt Lake City Meeting in May, I would like to draw your attention to the Selected Academic Topics Oral and Poster sessions on Monday. The authors of these are students from around the world. We have an excellent range of interesting papers. It is also important to support the student authors for their hard work. On behalf of the AAPG and the AAPG Student Chapter Committee, you are encouraged to attend the Student Reception during the AAPG Annual Meeting on May 18 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. at the Marriot Hotel, Room - Salon E. The evening will be filled with good food, and an awesome opportunity to meet with industry representatives. Mike G. Johnson, Exxon Exploration Company's Technical Vice President, will be the guest speaker talking on "Optimizing Personal Goals within a Corporate Business Objective". Other speakers include: Richard C. Hager, Mobil Exploration and Production, Reception Host and Past Student Chapter Chairman, myself, and Kerri Donathan, AAPG, Student Affairs Coordinator. Two, Schlumberger sponsored, Outstanding Student Chapter Awards ($500/each) will be awarded. As well as, the student author winners of the paper/poster sessions will receive their rewards. I hope to see you there! Henry A. Legarre Chevron Petroleum Technology Company and Chairman Student Chapter Committee

Student Update

Announcing Four New Student Chapters!! Brigham Young University, Provo, UT; President: Jonathon L. Baker, and Faculty Advisor: Thomas H. Morris. University of Colorado, Boulder, CO; President: Joshua Turner, and Faculty Advisor: Paul Weimer. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL; President: Diedre Lloyd, and Faculty Advisor: Neil Lundberg. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN; President: Camilo Montes, and Faculty Advisors: Bill Dunne.

Tit Bits Brent McMilleon , President, Northeast Louisiana University, said, "We have made several departmental field trips to observe local geological features. We collected fossils from 2 sites. The Copenhagen site in Caldwell parish is well known for its abundance of marine fossils such as shark's teeth and whale vertebrae. We then visited a gravel bar on the Mississippi River where we collected Pleistocene mega spring to the Hot Springs region of Arkansas." The chapter Vice President is Eric Morehead and Treasure is Sharon Pohlman. Rice University has 5 students attending AAPG meeting in SLC and giving presentations! Andrei Belopolsky , President stated, "There is a lot of enthusiasm among our students and I am sure that this is just the beginning. I was glad to see the announcement about our Chapter in the last Explorer·". Rice went on 3 different field trips during Feb. & March: A drill site near Wharton, sponsored by Amerada Hess; Offshore Drilling Rig, sponsored by Amoco & Rowan; and Texaco EPTD and 3-D Visualization Room. Rice also had 5 students volunteer for the Houston Geological Society Symposium in March! Todd Greene , President, Stanford AAPG Student Chapter stated the following activities for their Chapter: 3 day field trip to the site of a on-going Stanford-based reservoir characterization study to study 3-D sedimentological/structural attributes of an ancient submarine channel complex which was headed by Kai Anderson, Head of Field Trips Committee for the chapter. 2 day field trip to the Ridge Basin, southern California to study the basin fill, depositional systems, and structural history of a well-preserved strike-slip basin associated with the San Andreas Fault, headed by Brad Ritts, Vice-President. 3 Seminar and subsequent 3-day field trip to the Unita/Green River basins in Utah/Wyoming to study lacustrine sequence stratigraphy and sedimentology, headed by Brad Ritts. 3 Weekly meetings in conjunctions with the Stanford Sedimentology group to discuss upcoming field trips, and present current graduate student research, headed by Todd Greene. Royal Holloway, University of London, AAPG Student Chapter President, Markus Safaricz wrote in to say that the slides from the last issue of the Student Newsletter were of great interest to many and provoked discussion and comparisons. Andrea Adams , Texas A & M Student Chapter President, has been busy getting their chapter re-established and now have 25+ members!! They have also had speakers in from Exxon, Unocal, Marathon, Vastar, and Amerada-Hess. They went on a fieldtrip to Amerada-Hess's Peach Creek wellsite. Chris Baack, President, UT Arlington AAPG Student Chapter, let us know that they are alive and well. According to William McCarthy , President, UT Austin Chapter, this is a highlight of their activities: 3 Meetings held every second Friday at 4 p.m. Discussions were based upon what the club wanted to do, how to increase membership, and speakers that might like to be heard. 3 A trip to Enchanted Rock was planned and executed. Enthusiasm increased and Members were gained. 3 Successfully lobbied the faculty for an undergraduate Introduction to Petroleum Workstations coarse for a one hour credit offered to upper division geological sciences students. 3 Preliminary arrangements made with Burlington Resources for a possible 3-day field trip to include viewing office and fieldwork of a major oil producing company. UT El Paso, President, David Shearer, listed many activities that the chapter has participated in, one being, that the Chapter sponsored a Recruiting Barbecue for Geology Student Organization/Clubs. Approximately 50 Earth Science majors and graduate students attended. Tulane Univ., President, Seth Ackerman , helped form their newly established AAPG Student Chapter. They have also been taking advantage of the AAPG Visiting Geologist Program.

University Visits I, Kerri Donathan, have made university visits to encourage student membership and AAPG Student Chapters. Universities already visited include: Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma University, University of Arkansas, Colorado School of Mines, Colorado College, University of Colorado, and Colorado State. I also participated in the new Internship/Mentorship Program of Colorado. If you feel a personal visit from AAPG would help educate and motivate your geology department about AAPG, please send your proposal, and we will talk!		Fund Raiser Ideas Design and sell T-shirts Deliver phone books (submitted idea, can't take full credit!) Run a booth of refreshments at university ball-games, and carnivals Work the AAPG General Store during annual convention Bet on a winning horse at the races The norm: raffle tickets, candy bars, car-wash Beg ... OK .... so some are lame, if you have good ideas or something that has worked great for your chapter, please share!! Send comments to: Student Affairs Coordinator

University of Wyoming AAPG Student Chapter High School Outreach Program By Margaret Kloska University of Wyoming Student Chapter
Articles in monthly issues of Oil and Gas Journal (O&GJ), The Explorer by American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and The Leading Edge by Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) have addressed concerns about the lack of students seeking degrees in the geosciences. In response to these concerns, several students in the University of Wyoming AAPG Student Chapter, Laramie Wyoming, have created a high school outreach program to inform and excite high school students about the geosciences. The geology of Wyoming provides an excellent backdrop to the program because its abundant natural resources support state programs, primarily education. This interactive program designed for high school audiences, includes a slide presentation of college students and professionals in the field, an array of several sub-disciplines of geology that supply jobs upon graduation, pay scale for degrees and levels of experience, UW's Geology and Geophysics Department facilities and the University campus itself. Participation from the audience is encouraged and excitement is immediately generated through the distribution of free t-shirts, candy, and hats in return for insightful answers and comments. A hands-on session provides students with an opportunity to ask questions and understand the research projects of the graduate students who are involved in the outreach program. Fossils, bruton compasses, minerals, hammers, seismic sections, landsat maps and stereoscopes with aerial photos of the high school students' towns are among the many 'touchables' brought to the schools.		Goals of this program are to   (1) increase the University's participation in secondary education,   (2) stimulate curiosity and increase student's existing knowledge of the geosciences through visual presentations, hands-on demonstrations and fun classroom activities, and  (3) promote the geosciences as a viable career option. Hand-outs brought to the high schools and available to students include a page on geoscience weblinks, AAPG/AGI/GSA pamphlets explaining geoscience sub-disciplines, O&GJ Careers in Geosciences (October 1997) issue and UW informational brochures. Thanks to the materials provided by AAPG, financial support from UW's Department of Geology and Geophysics as well as contributions from the oil and mining companies made to the student chapter, this comprehensive and interactive program has and will continue to teach students about the significance of earth resources in the global market and the vitally important role that the geoscientist plays. Graduate students participating in this program are: Ms. Jen Bell (geochemistry), Mr. Jamie Jones (structural geology), Ms. Margie Kloska (geophysics), Mr. Mark Olson (sedimentary geology) and Mr. Anton Wroblewski (paleontology, sedimentary geology).

Employment Trends Barry J. Katz, Chairman, AAPG Research Committee, wrote the 1997 Report on the Status of Academic Geoscience Departments and the Figures above show how, "The percentage of graduates entering the environmental sector continues to decline suggesting that this sector of the job market may be reaching saturation. It is interesting to note that as this sector of the job market appears to be decreasing the geoscience departments have been adjusting to emphasize environmental aspects of geoscience. The petroleum industry in North America accounts for ~17% of the graduates entering the employment market. This sector continues to show slight growth over past years. In fact, the petroleum industry now accounts for more post-graduation position than does employment outside of the geosciences. Mining accounted for about 3% of the reported graduate placements. "Outside of North America ~20% of the graduates entering the labor marker found positions in the petroleum industry. About 25% of these assumed research positions. This is a significantly higher percentage than in North America where only ~11 of the petroleum industry positions were associated with research activities. The percentage of graduates entering the petroleum industry outside of North American continues to decline. This year's results may have been skewed because the difference in reporting departments. This year's study did not include the large number of Chinese graduates entering the petroleum industry included in the 1996 survey. Environmental positions outside to North America account for only ~21% of those entering the labor pool. The number of new government positions also appears to have continued its decline noted in last year's survey. The percentage of graduates outside of North America leaving the geosciences has increased form 27% in 1996 to 36% in 1997. The mining industry accounts for about 9% of the post-graduation activity. "As was the case for the past two years a determination was made as to the percentage of students that continued their education. In North America the percentage of students continuing their education rather than directly entering the job market has remained at ~37%. The percentage outside of North America is higher approaching 54%. The number of graduates pursing additional training outside of North America appears to continue to increase (1995 - 47%; 1996 - 50%)." For a copy of the complete report, e-mail: Student Affairs Coordinator

AAPG Programs Enhance Your Education The AAPG Education Department and AAPG Foundation offer financial assistance for college and university professors to help defray the cost of attending AAPG Schools and Short Courses. The program is supported by industry and by individual contributions. Major contributors since the inception of the program include: Amoco Production Company Chevron USA, Inc. Oxy USA Conoco, Inc. Exxon Company, USA James M. Forgotson, Sr. Getty Oil Company (now Texaco) Kerr-McGee Corporation James O. Lewis, Jr. Louisiana Land & Exploration Company Foundation Marinus Herman Nederlof Phillips Petroleum Company Pogo Producing Co. Reading & Bates Petroleum Santa Fe Energy Foundation (now Santa Fe Southern Pacific Foundation) Shell Oil Company Dr. & Mrs. Robert E. Sheriff Standard Oil Co. Of California (now Chevron) John A. Taylor Union Pacific Foundation/Champlin Petroleum Company Union Texas Petroleum/Allied Corporation Foundation Victor J. Veroda. Two places are reserved in each course and are filled on a first-come, first served basis. If the positions are not filled within two months prior to the course, however, they will be relinquished to registrants on the waiting list. The program covers 75% of the tuition fee and lodging costs for the participant (if the course is not in their home city.) In addition, a $25/day per diem is given. The program applies to AAPG Schools and Short Courses only --- Field Seminars are not eligible for these grants. AAPG awards Continuing Education Units (CEU's) for its training functions. Included in this program are Schools, Short Courses, and Field Seminars. The CEU is noted on each offering included in our Education Calendar/Catalog. This is a nationally recognized unit of achievement that is based on 10 contact hours being equivalent to one CEU. CEU's are customarily awarded by organizations that have a Continuing Education Program under responsible sponsorship, capable direction, and with qualified instruction. AAPG meets these requirements. For AAPG members, records of CEU's for all AAPG courses taken are added to their membership record, dating back to January 1, 1989. The release of information will only be granted by authorization of the member. These records will provide evidence of personal and vocational growth and adjustment to meet changing career demands. It will also demonstrate a conscious, persistent and voluntary effort toward personal development and growth. This record will be available to any member upon request. Other CEU credits can be added to your membership record as well. Any geoscience training organization that is now awarding CEU's under the auspices of the Council of the Continuing Education Unit will be accepted. If you are interested in adding these courses to your record, please send to the AAPG Education Department your document of attendance from the sponsoring institution. If you are currently an AAPG Student Member we have good news for you!! You can now attend any of AAPG's Continuing Education Short Courses or Schools for just $50! That's right - just $50 for any course, whether it is one day, two days or even five days!! (Sorry, the Field Seminars are not included, only the Short Courses and Schools.) Even better --- if you are also a member of an official AAPG Student Chapter, then your tuition cost is only $25, instead of $50!! This applies to our open courses held throughout the year, as well as to the courses offered in conjunction with our Annual Conventions and International Meetings. Three student spaces will be allotted for each course and students will be accepted in the order of receiving their paid registrations. So check your calendars and our Education Catalog and pick out your favorite course and be sure to sign up early!! Have you ever wanted to attend an AAPG School or Short Course, but weren't able to because of cost factors? By participating in AAPG's Grad Student Projectionist Program, you'll be doing us a favor, and in return, you'll be able to attend one or two courses a year that you are interested in at minimal or no cost to you! This program is open to anyone currently enrolled in graduate school, studying for either a Masters degree or Ph.D. in a geoscience or related field. Here's how it works: You look over the schedule of AAPG School and Short Course offerings in our catalog, and choose one or two that you would like to attend. Give us a call, and we'll let you know if we still need a projectionist for that course - there is one slot available for most courses, and it is filled on a first-come, first-served basis. As projectionist, your duties will include operating the slide projectors, sound and light controls, changing bulbs, and generally assisting the speaker and the AAPG representative in making the course run smoothly. In return for these responsibilities, you attend the course free of charge, receive all of the course materials, and you will receive $25 per day to help defray expenses. Regretfully, we cannot assist you with your travel costs or lodging, but if you choose a course in your own town, or one nearby, this won't be a problem for you. By attending these courses, you not only get to learn about a specific topic of interest from a noted instructor, but you have the opportunity to meet and interact with many industry and independent geologists already dealing with many of the situations you will face when you graduate and find employment as a professional geologist. Beginning this kind of "networking" now can be of great value to you as your career progresses. This program only applies to our Schools and Short Courses, and does not apply to Field Seminars. There are only one or two Schools that do not require a projectionist, so for the most part, any of the AAPG Short Courses and Schools that you see listed in our catalog are available in this program. Please contact Debbi Boonstra in the AAPG Education Department, at 918-560-2630, (FAX: 918-560-2678) if you are interested in participating in this program.